The never say die agent 007, James Bond is to return shaken and not stirred! Famous British novelist William Boyd will step into the shoes of Ian Fleming, to pen the new Bond-classic that will hit the stands in 2013.

Harper Collins publishers said Boyd was the next hired gun to come out with a Bond blockbuster in the fall of 2013, 60 years after the first Bond series 'Casino Royale' hit the stands.

Boyd, 60, is the third novelist in recent years, after Sebastian Faulks and Jeffery Deaver, to accept the invitation from the Fleming estate. No plot details have been released but the action will be set in the 1960s and Boyd said the novel would mark a return to "classic Bond".

"When the Ian Fleming estate invited me to write the new James Bond novel I accepted at once," Boyd was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying.

"For me the prospect appeared incredibly exciting and stimulating, a once-in-a-lifetime challenge. In fact, my father introduced me to the James Bond novels in the 1960s and I read them all then, From Russia With Love being my favourite," he added.

His most recent novel, the espionage thriller 'Waiting for Sunrise', was published in February. Fleming wrote 14 Bond books, with some of them like 'The Man With The Golden Gun', 'Octopussy' and 'the Living Daylights' were published after his death in 1964.

James Bond's last novel,'Carte Blanche' penned by Jeffery Deaver, was published last year. Incidentally next year marks the 60th anniversary of Bond novels.